Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers

I talk about the historical context of the Agile manifesto, what “comprehensive documentation” meant then, and what documentation is still important now. I also remind you that you can support this podcast by becoming a patron. I chose not to … Continue reading →

This episode is all about the TIOBE Index of programming language popularity: when to use it, what its limitations are, why certain things are or aren’t popular, and why the hell isn’t Excel on the list.

This issue is all about the various reasons information security isn’t taken more seriously by developers. CERT C Secure Coding Standard Open Web Application Security Project Microsoft Bluehat DefCon Security BSides

We would now what they thought when they did it, a call for a history of ideas in computing. Laurent Bossavit, author of The Leprechauns of Software Engineering, can’t work out who introduced the phrase “legacy code” (or why). Technical … Continue reading →

This episode follows from episode 42: what I have yet to learn. APPropriate Behaviour and its incompleteness comes up again The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (and its incompleteness) come up again too; last mentioned in episode 41: professional software. … Continue reading →

This episode is about the things I don’t know about software engineering. 20 things [Justin Etheridge has] learned in 20 years as a software engineer by @justinetheridge The SICPers blog (might be a bit weird linking that here, but if … Continue reading →

We talk about software engineering as a profession. ACM Code of Ethics Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBoK) BCS Code of Conduct

This episode is about truisms that aren’t, in the world of the computer. I’ve already written an article, falsehoods programmers believe about programming, on a similar topic, but in this episode I go into way more depth on the counter-examples … Continue reading →

This episode is about what happens when you let people who are interested in programming (the process) define how you do programming (creating a program). Links: Code Kata Just for Fun: the Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (Linus Torvalds’ autobiography) … Continue reading →

This post is all about whether dependencies are expensive or valuable to a software project (the answer is “yes” in a lot of cases). It was motivated by Benefits of dependencies in software projects as a function of effort by … Continue reading →